Meteorologists say its path has been harder to pin down than that of other storms

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A motel displays a sign asking Hurricane Matthew to stay away in Kill Devil Hiils in the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Oct. 5, 2016, as the storm makes its way toward the United States.
The United States began evacuating coastal areas as Hurricane Matthew churned toward the Bahamas, after killing at least 14 people in the Caribbean in a maelstrom of wind, mud and water. / AFP / NICHOLAS KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

Hurricane Matthew is wet, wild and weird. Meteorologists say its path has been harder to pin down than that of other storms, but Matthew is definitely dangerous and may possibly stick around to bedevil the Southeast coast for a week or so.

A: If Matthew keeps its current status as a major hurricane — with winds of 110 mph or more as a Category 3 or higher — it will be the first major hurricane to make landfall in the United States since Wilma in October 2005. Wilma's winds at landfall were 120 mph; earlier that year, Katrina hit with winds of 125 mph.

NOAA Crew Flies Into Eye of Hurricane Matthew

A flight crew from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) flew into the eye of Hurricane Matthew on Oct. 6. The video shows crew members flying in very turbulent conditions into the center of the storm, which spun dangerously close to Florida's Atlantic coast Friday morning, scraping the shore with howling wind and heavy rain and that left more than 400,000 without power. (Published Friday, Oct. 7, 2016)

As of 11 a.m. Thursday, Matthew's maximum sustained winds were 140 mph. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm was expected to remain a Category 4 storm as it approached Florida.

That could make Matthew the first major U.S. hurricane of the social media era. Twitter and iPhones didn't exist when Wilma hit, and Facebook was in its infancy.

Superstorm Sandy in 2012 caused more than $50 billion in damage, but even if it hit the coast as a hurricane, it would have qualified only as a Category 1, with peak winds of 85 mph. Storm surge, large size and location were the big problems. It was also a combination of three different types of storm systems so it isn't a good comparison.

The last hurricane with a similar strength and track to threaten the U.S. East Coast was 1999's Hurricane Floyd , which caused about $7 billion in damage in the Carolinas, says Jeff Masters, a former hurricane hunter meteorologist and meteorology director of Weather Underground.

Man Drives Truck Through Storm to Deliver Diesel in Bahamas

Jack Adderley needed to deliver diesel to clients of his generator business as Hurricane Matthew pummeled the Bahamas, so he got in his truck and forged ahead. He is shown here driving near the Nassau International Airport. (Published Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016)

"There's no question that it's going to have major impacts," he says. "Is it going to be devastating or just major-damaging?"

That depends: A few degrees difference in the hard-to-forecast track as it hugs the coast could make the difference between a $1 billion storm and a $10 billion one, he said.

A: In some ways, the worst case scenario would be if the storm's eye stays just offshore, enabling it to feed over water and avoid weakening while its strongest hurricane winds keep smacking the beaches, says University of Miami tropical meteorology researcher Brian McNoldy, who just finished his own storm preparations. In that case, "you're raking hundreds of miles of coastline."

Don't think of it as just an eye — this storm is already so large, and likely to expand even more, that it will have widespread impacts, Masters says.

Technically a storm doesn't "make landfall " until its eye reaches land, but it can still be considered a "direct hit" if it is close enough to shore, even if the eye stays just over water.

Q: So which is the big worry with Matthew: Wind, rain or storm surge?

Aerial Images Show Hurricane Matthew’s Damage

Aerial and on-the-ground images reveal how Hurricane Matthew has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the impoverished nation of Haiti since a devastating earthquake hit six years ago, according to the United Nations. The storm ripped through Haiti on Oct. 4, causing heavy flooding and knocking down houses. Some 80 percent of homes were damaged in Haiti's SUD department, which has a population of more than 700,000, according to a government official. (Published Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016)

A: While storm surge and rain can be a problem, McNoldy and Masters worry most about Matthew's winds.

"It's going to do a lot of wrecking," Masters says. "Matthew will get big and bad."

A: Emanuel and Masters say this is harder to forecast. Some computer models have changed long-term tracks from up the East Coast into New England a couple days ago, to now possibly lingering around the Southeast.

Evacuations Underway in South Carolina As Matthew Nears

A massive evacuation effort is underway in South Carolina as Hurricane Matthew, the strongest Atlantic storm in nearly a decade, churns off the coast. (Published Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016)

But McNoldy points out the turn due north between Haiti and Cuba was well forecast, and only the long-term forecasts gyrate greatly, which is more understandable. As for short-term track forecasts, the changes are only more noticeable because they are so close to land that 50 to 75 miles one way or another makes a huge difference.

Still, new Tropical Storm Nicole is likely affecting the path of Matthew. And the Bermuda high pressure system and low pressure trough coming from the west over the United States aren't strong enough to block Matthew or push it seaward, the meteorologists say.

With weak steering systems, some computer models have Matthew sticking around the U.S. coast for another week or so. Chuckling — because meteorologists have a dark sense of humor about storms — both Masters and McNoldy acknowledge that one trusted computer model even sees a possible loop-de-loop that curls Matthew back around to South Florida for a second time.

Hurricane Matthew Threatens North Carolina Peanut Harvest

Farmers across eastern North Carolina are in the fields trying to get a jump on Hurricane Matthew. The storm comes at a crucial time for peanut farmers like Lee Swinson. The Duplin County farmer says harvest for his crop begins at the end of September to early October. He said each year they fill 300 trucks of peanuts, but because they just began harvest, only 12 trucks have been topped off. (Published Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016)

A: Mostly hurricanes simply happen. However, warm water fuels storms, and the water in the Caribbean, where Matthew has been growing, is 1.8 to 2.7 degrees warmer than its long-term average, the meteorologists said. Masters says that makes climate change a possible factor, although McNoldy and Emanuel disagree.

Maximum potential intensity — a key measurement of heat energy in the ocean — has increased by about 15 mph in the past 35 years in the areas of the Atlantic where tropical storms spawn. And the maximum potential intensity is especially high now just east of Palm Beach, Florida, Emanuel says. But he says that's because of reductions in sulfur particle air pollution and its cooling effects, not climate change.